DECLARATIONS: WAY TO RECOVERY

(Has the government attained the objectives it set for itself?)

From the outset Russia's political leadership failed to make clear-cut or detailed commitments in any sphere of social life including the economy, let alone the general promise given by the President of Russia to stabilize the latter by autumn 1992.

Nevertheless the statements by government leaders, and above all by Yegor Gaidar, clearly designated the objectives it set for the initial period of reforms. They boiled down to, first, liberalization of the economy (commodity markets, currency regulation, foreign economic activities) and, second, financial stabilization consisting of abolition of the state budget deficit, a rigid restriction of new credits to enterprises, and the stabilization of the exchange rate of the rouble. A declaration was made of intentions to carry out institutional reforms: the privatization of state-owned property, the implementation of land reform, and development of the market infrastructure. The comparison of results (as of May 1992) with the proclaimed objectives provides the basis for appraising this government's activities in the economic sphere in the first six months of its work.